POORE SAAL KI AADHI NAZM / پورے سال کی آدھی نظم

Muhabbat ka December

Gham ka pur-malaal aasman

Dard ki shadeed baarish

Aur tanha Bheegta mai

Yaadon ki chaadar tang

Aur safar taveel

Judai ke January ki barf

Pighlane ke liye ab

Tamaam yaadon ko hi

Jhulsana hoga

...

December ki thithurti nazm gar

February mein yun utregi

Sochta hoon

Zindagi Kaise guzregi

محبت کا دثمبر 

غم کا پُر ملال آسمان 

درد کی شدید بارش

اور تنہا بھیگتا میں 

یادوں کی چادر تنگ

اور سفر طویل 

جدائی کے جنوری کی برف

پگھلانے کے لئے اب

تمام یادوں کو ہی

جھلسانا ہوگا

...

دسمبر کی ٹھٹھرتی نظم گر

فروری میں یوں اُترےگی 

سوچتا ہوں

زندگی کیسے گزرے گی 

The Birdfeeder

The birdfeeder outside burns

with a grainy tongue of taste

attracting birds as moths -

Pigeons and Mynas, the usual visitors

but also Crows and Eagles,

sometimes Bulbuls and

Thrushes.

This year, however,

we had unusual ones -

Parakeets -

visiting in groups

like college students

bunking classes,

missing the whole semester 

during peak summers.

Yesterday our neighbour called

requesting to ensnare

some of these tiny rackety rascals.

But we don't . . . I answered

and it dawned on me

how love is a trap for some

and trap, love for others.

and You

My nocturnal fortunes were never fair:

I couldn't ever see

Srinagar skies with you,

gifting you shapes in the stars

sliced like cakes,

whichever shape you wished.

Stars, skies and shapes 

I lost everything;

I lost the shape that emerged

out of your womanly body

into motherhood.

Your gustatory shift from tea to coffee,

I lost too,

your sartorial mutations.

I lost your acquisition 

of driving licence

or the coordination you acquired 

between your hands, feet and eyes

that was absent

in your life.

The alignment of your lips and tongue

is not the same as I left them quivering then,

I have lost the sound

of words

that you pronounce differently now.

I lost in a lifetime

what others gain in one

And you

And you

And you